Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-23

1t il very short bridge between smile
and tear, suspension bridge from eye
to lin. and it is soon crossed over, and
smile is sometimes lust as sacred as tear.
There is az much religion, and i think
little more, in ~ spring morning than IN a
starless midnight. Religious work with
out any humor or wit in it is banquet
with side Of beef, and that raw. and no
condiments. and no dessert succeeding.
People will not sit down at such q ban
ouet By all means remove all frivolity
and all bathos, and ali lightness and all
vulgarity-strain them out through the
sieve of holy discrimination: but, on the
other hand, beware Of that monster which
evershadows the Christian church o-day.
conventionality, coming up from the Great
Sahara desert Of ecclesinsticism. having on
its back q hump of sanctimonious gloom,
and vehementlv refuse tc swallow that
camel.
Oh, how particular great many people
are about the infinitesimals while they are
quite reckless about the magnitudes.
What did Christ say? Did he not ex-
coriate the people in his time who werc
so careful TO wash their hands before q
meal but did not wash their hearts? 1t is
bad thing to have unclean hands; it is a
worse thing to have an unclean heart.
How many people there are in our time
who are very anxious that after their death
they shall be buried with thee feet toward
the east, and not ut all anxious, that during
their whole life they should face in the
right direction So that they shall come up
in the resurrection of the Just whichever
way they are buried. How many there
are chiefly anxious that minister of the
Gospel shall come in the line Of apostolic
succession. not caring SO much whether
he comes from Apostle Paul or Apostle
Judas. They have q way OF measuring q
gnat until it is larger than q camel.
Again, my subject photographs all those
who are abhorrent of small sins while
they are reckless in regard to magnificent
thefts. You will find many merchant
who, while he is 80 careful that he would
not take n yard of cloth or spool of
cotton from the counter without paying for
it, and who il bank cashier should make
q mistake and send in roll of bills 50 too
much would dispatch messenger in hot
haste to return the surplus, yet who will
60 into stock company in which after a
while he gets control of the stock, and
then waters the stock and makes 500. 900
appear like $2OU,000. He only stole
100000 by the operation. Many of the
men of fortune made their wealth in that
way. One of those men, engaged in such
unrighteous acts, that evening, the even
ing of the very day when he watered the
stock, will find a wharf rat stealing a
newspaper from the basement doorway,
and will 60 out and catch the urchin by
the collar, and twist the collar SO tightly
the poor fellow cannot say that it was
thirst for knowledge that led him to the
dishonest act, but grip the collar tighter
and tighter, saying: II have been lookin g
for you long while; You stole my paper
four or five times, haven't you? you miser-
able wretch" And then the old stock
gambler, with voice they can hear three
blocks, will cry out, "Police, police!"
That same man, the evening of the day in
which he watered the stock, will kneel
for the prosperity Of the day, then kiss his
children good night with an air which
seems to say, II hope you will all grow up
to be Us good as your father." Prisons
for sins insectile in size, but palaces for
crimes dromedarian. No mercy for sins
animalcule in proportion. but great leniency
for mastodon iniquity A poor boy slyly
cakes from the basket of n market woman
o choice pear-saving some one else from
the cholera-and you smother him in the
horrible atmosphere of Raymond street
who has been skillful enough to steal
$50,0OO from the city, you will make him
candidate for the New York Legislature!
There is n great deal of unensiness and
nervousness now among some people in
our time who have gotten unrighteous for
tune, great deal of nervousness about
dynamite. tell them that God will put
under their unrighteous fortunes something
more explosive than dynamite, the earth
quake of his olnnipotent indignation. 1t
is time that we learn in America that
sin is not excusable in proportion as it de-
clares large dividends and has outriders in
equipage. Many man is riding to per-
dition, position ahead and lackey behind.
To steal one copy of II newspaper is a gnat;
to steal many thousands of dollars is a
camel. There 10 many n fruit dealer who
would not consent to steal q basket of
peaches from neighbours stall, but who
would not scruple to depress the fruit
market; and as long as can remember we
have heard every summer the peach crop
of Maryland is Il failure. and by the time
the crop comes in the Misrepresentation
makes difference of millions of dollars.
A man who would not steal one peach basket
steals SO, 900 peach baskets. Go down in the
summer time into the Mercantile library,
in the reading rooms, and see the news-
paper reports OF the crops from all parts of
the country, and their phraseolegy is very
much the same. and the same men wrote
them, methoiically and UNANIMOUSLY
carrying out the huge lying about tue
grain crop from year TO year and for n
score of years. After Il while there will
be corner" in the wheat market and
men who had contempt for petty
theft will burs'arize the wheat bin of ma
ton and commit larceny upon the Ameri-
can corn crib. And some Of the men will
sit in churches and in reformatory institu-
tons trying TO rain out the small gnats Of
scoundrelism, while in their grain elevat-
ors and their storehouses they are fatten-
ing huge cnmels, WHICH they expect after
awhile to swallow. Society has to be en-
tirely reconstructed on this subject. We
are to find that a sin is inexcusablc in pro-
portion as it is great.
1 know in our time the tendency is to
charge religious frauds against good men.
They say: "Oh, what class of frauds
you have in the church of God in this
day." and when I'M elder of a church, or a
deacon. or a minister of the Gospel, or a
superintendent of a Sabbath chool turns
out a defaulter, what display heads there
are in many of the newspapers. Great
primer type. Five-line plea: "Another
Saint Absconded," Clerical Scoundrel-
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